ARTICLES ABOUT STATE GRANT BY DATE - PAGE 2

Her bosses told dental technology teacher Cindy Heil they wanted to show off labs to a guest on Tuesday. OK, Heil said. That guest would be state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis, they said. OK, Heil said, unfazed. "Dentistry is just my passion," she said. So is teaching. So when Tomalis, followed by a small group of staff and local superintendents, entered the spotless lab at Lehigh Career & Technical Institute, they witnessed the passion. Heil moved fluidly from one area to the other pointing out equipment and students to her guests.

Eight years after he opened a chocolate shop in south Bethlehem, Brian Tallarico probably understands the parking crunch on E. Third Street better than most. Some would-be patrons, he said, don't believe they'll find parking, though there are spots and lots tucked among the strips of businesses along Third and Fourth streets. Others parked curbside sometimes rush out of Tallarico's Chocolates because they have to feed the meter. "Parking garages are great to have around, once people get used to using them," Tallarico said.

Since the arrival of the Great Recession and a governor who isn't fond of delivering big cardboard checks, Lehigh Valley developers have found a new investor to help their projects get off the ground: You, the local taxpayer. Through Tax Increment Financing, towns can detour millions of dollars in tax collections to developers who use the money to finance projects that might not otherwise get done. So, for Weisenberg Township to get the $114 million West Hills Business Center and the 1,500 jobs that may come with it, taxpayers will relinquish $24.6 million in new tax revenues.

A New Jersey company will move a pharmaceutical packaging plant from New Jersey to Lehigh County, where it is expected to create 283 jobs over the next three years, officials announced Wednesday. Quality Packaging Specialists International is moving a facility from Bergen County to Industrial Park Way in Lower Macungie Township. It is moving into an existing 157,000-square-foot warehouse, where it will invest $10 million for improvements, according to the state. The state offered the company $3.4 million in loans and grants to lure it to Pennsylvania.

Lehigh Valley Health Network has been awarded a $1.5 million state grant to establish a community health information exchange, LVHN announced Monday. The goal of the exchange is to allow local hospitals, physicians and similar exchanges elsewhere to share patient health information electronically, saving time, improving care and reducing healthcare costs, LVHN explained in a press release. "The $1.5 million grant will advance our ability to coordinate communication between health care providers so we can continue to offer safe, cost-effective care across our community," LVHN vice president Harry Lukens said in the release.

Counties line up for new way to fund social services — The Corbett administration's plan to allow counties to use a new block grant to pay for such key social services as drug and alcohol treatment and intellectual disabilities programs was one of the most contentious proposals of this year's budget debate. But with the money now up for grabs, county officials have apparently gotten over their reservations. Officials in 30 of the state's 67 counties have applied for 20 available spots in the new block grant program.

Plans for a $1 million-plus redevelopment project in downtown Emmaus have hit delays, but officials say the work will begin shortly. A developer is planning to convert the former Main Street Furniture Gallery at 187-191 Main St. into improved retail space and offices. Teri Madison of Emmaus Main Street Partners told Borough Council week that the work is expected to begin "soon. " The developers, who had been hoping to have the offices and stores completed this fall, are now shooting for January 2013, Madison said.

Last month, the state sent a clear message that some students of low-performing schools can go elsewhere for their education — as early as this school year. But a week before many schools resume classes, students attending what the state considers low-achieving schools have few places to turn, because schools willing to open their doors to qualifying students don't have the money to take them in. The new Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit Program, approved with the state budget in June, is designed to allow students who attend schools designated as "low-achieving" to apply for a grant funded by what is expected to be $50 million in business tax credits, and go to another school.

State and city officials are working with the owners of Allentown's upscale Cosmopolitan restaurant to come up with improvements that would help the eatery's owners tap $500,000 in state capital grants that were originally set aside over a year ago to help fund the building's renovation. The Cosmopolitan, which opened in September 2010 across N. Sixth Street from Allentown Symphony Hall, was awarded $500,000 in Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, or RCAP, funding by Gov. Ed Rendell a month after it served its first martini.

The fresh facade of the Pomeroy building on Northampton Street may be joined in rehabbed glory by its now separated twin on Pine Street. The Easton Redevelopment Authority plans to apply by the end of this month for a $500,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development that officials believe would spark construction in the dormant second phase of the once-shabby building's redevelopment. "It makes the project go," authority Executive Director Gretchen Longenbach said of the possible grant.